Perfect Match (23 page)

He left the bathroom and sat back in the
viewing area waiting for his promo and match to come up. Mike sat
down beside him and looked around. “Where’s Noelle?” he asked when
he was sure no one was around.

“At the hotel. I hate her being there by
herself but too many people would ask questions if she was hanging
out back here.”

“You don’t look so good, man.”

“I’m fine. I just have the flu or something.
No big deal.”

“No big deal? You are sweating your ass off
and it’s frickin’ freezing in here. You look as white as a ghost
and your eyes are all glassy.”

Jackson didn’t respond.

“You are actually going to fight tonight,
aren’t you?”

“Mike, you’re a wrestler too. You should get
this. One more match and then I can rest up. If you tell Noelle,
I’ll fucking kill you.” And with that, Jackson left to get ready to
go out to the ring.

Something was wrong and it was more than just
the flu or some torn muscle in his back. Jackson entered the ring
and just stood in corner waiting for Kevin and Kayla to come out.
He braced his arms over the top ropes as if holding him up. He saw
them walking down to the ring, but suddenly lost focus on them. His
eyes got real watery and he felt dizzy. He doubled over in pain and
everything went dark. He must have hit the mat because he vaguely
remembered Kevin leaning over him asking if he was okay. He heard
him yell to Kayla to get the medics in. He thought he was going to
do die and everything else went away.

Noelle knew that most of the time, Jackson
just put on a tough guy act. He always did and needed to get over
that quick! Even as he complained about the pain he has been in
this week, he still went into the ring as if nothing was wrong,
against everyone’s suggestions. She knew it was tough guy act all
along and went along with it because that is who Jackson is, but
walking into his hospital room with all the tubes hooked up to him
showed her just how vulnerable Jackson really was.

The curtains were drawn in his room with the
exception of a small crack. A ray of light was coming in and
streaked across his chest. His bed was slightly raised and he was
asleep. She could hear his breath catch like it does while he
sleeps. She sat down on the chair beside his bed. He wore a
hospital gown, and he looked so peaceful as he slept. He was so
gorgeous, and she loved him like no other. But she had to remember
how mad she was at him at this point.

Appendicitis. Stupid ass and his damn male
pride, it took him doubling over from the pain inside the ring with
a ruptured appendix to make him fully admit that he was sick. She
reached for his hand and held it lightly. He was going to be okay,
but still the thought of losing him made her sick.

Turning his head towards Noelle, Jackson
opened eyes. It took him a moment to focus. He looked down at her
hand in his and squeezed it gently. He looked up at her and smiled.
“Hi, Scout.” His voice was rough.

She smiled, squeezing his hand just a bit.
“Hi. How are you feeling?” Her voice was thick with emotion.

“Not sure. I feel no pain at this point.”

The medicine must be working, Noelle thought.
She kissed him lightly on the cheek. He smiled at her. She felt the
knot that had been in her belly since the moment she read the text
from Mike telling her how Jackson dropped inside the ring loosen.
The doctors told her that he was going to be alright. She really
didn’t believe it until she saw him smile.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked. She could see
the concern he had. Here he was in the hospital and he was
concerned about her. All the more reason to be so in love with
him.

“I’m just glad you are going to be alright,”
she said fighting the tears that were about to fall from her
eyes.

Jackson noticed and slowly reached his hand
up to touch her cheek. She closed her eyes just as a tear fell. She
reached for his hand and held it in hers. Opening her eyes, she was
able to see Jackson smiling at her as he said, “You really do like
me, don’t you?”

Laughter erupted and that felt a lot better
than crying. “Yeah, I do,” she kissed his hand. “Don’t go getting
all full of yourself.”

“Yeah, well I like you too.”

“You had me so scared, you know. Jackson,
it’s okay to be sick! You were complaining about it so much this
week, but you didn’t do anything about it until it was almost too
late. If you aren’t feeling right, you go to the doctor. No one
will think any less of you. I’m serious, Jackson! If you have to
take a day off, so be it. This could have been so much worse.”

“I’m so sorry I scared you. I just felt like,
with Kevin going away for a while, that they needed me.”

This was the situation that made Pop forbid
his girls from dating a wrestler. The main reason she was sure,
that he didn’t want them to get involved. Well, she was involved
and it was too late to turn back. “Yeah, but I need you. I need you
to be healthy. I can’t bear the thought of not being with you, so
you have to promise me that you are going to take care of
yourself.” She sounded way harsher than she intended, but didn’t
care. He had to know how serious this was to her.

“I love you, Noelle. I promise,” he laughed
slightly. “You sure do have Larry’s temper.” He leaned his head
back and closed his eyes.

“Get some rest, Jackson. I’ll be right
here.”

Heading back towards the elevator, Noelle
heard Mike call her name. She pressed the up button and smiled at
him. “Hey, Mike.”

“Hey, you just get here?” He sounded
surprised.

“No. I’ve been here all night. I must have
fallen asleep, I’ve just woke up because the nurses came in to give
him another dose of his pain meds. I came down for some
coffee.”

“How’s he doing?” The elevator door opened
and they stepped inside.

Noelle pressed the button to his floor and
said as the doors closed, “He’s going to be fine. They removed the
appendix and got the poison out. He has been walking around for who
knows how long with an inflamed appendix, and it took it rupturing
for him to seek help. Damn him for being so stubborn.”

Mike shook his head and laughed. “I told him
last night before the show that he didn’t look good. He does what
he wants to do, though.”

The elevator opened and they stepped out.
Noelle led the way to his room. “I’m just glad he’s going to be
okay. He’ll probably get out tomorrow but he’ll have to take it
easy for a while. He’ll be better once he can rest at home.”

They reached Jackson’s room. Noelle made a
face, because she heard voices coming from inside, wondering who
could be visiting him.

“So you’ll probably get to leave tomorrow.”
Howie was sitting on the chair that she was in that night. “I can
drive you home, and you can be damned sure your mother will make
sure you get your rest.” Howie looked over at them when they stood
by the windows.

“Hey, Lady.” Noelle turned to see Pop
standing against the wall. He sounded a bit confused to see her in
Cleveland, visiting Jackson in the hospital.

“Pop,” Noelle said trying to not sound
surprised that he was there. She cannot believe that it didn’t
occur to her that his dad and her Pop would drive here to check on
him. She was glad she left for that coffee so they wouldn’t know
she was there with him all night.

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said
giving her a hug. He shook Mike’s hand. “I’m not really surprised
that you are here, because I know you two are friends. Had I known,
you could have driven in with us.”

“She’s been here with me all night.” They all
heard Jackson say. Everyone turned to look at him. He looked out of
it, like he would if he was drunk. Apparently the pain meds just
kicked in.

“No, I just got here, I came with Mike.”

Jackson waved his hand at that. “No, you
didn’t. You’ve been with me since I got out of surgery. She even
went off on me about how I needed to be careful. You would have
been proud of her Larry. She’s one tough chick.”

Noelle wanted the floor to open up and
swallow her. Jackson was so out of it, that he had no idea what he
was saying. That is what made this situation very bad.

“Jackson, maybe you should just get some
rest,” Mike said.

“Larry, I have to tell you something,”
Jackson said.

Noelle closed her eyes and reached back for
Mike for his support. She knew what was coming and there was
nothing that she could do to stop it.

“What’s that, son?”

“I love your daughter.”

Noelle squeezed Mike’s hand. She wanted to
stop him, but she knew the only chance she has was to play dumb and
pretend like Jackson was so out of it that he didn’t know what he
was saying.

Larry looked at his daughter. She just
shrugged. He looked back to Jackson. “Say that again?”

“I’ve loved Noelle since I was a kid. I
promise I’m going to take good care of her.”

“The boy is losing his mind,” Howie chimed in
with his usual chuckle. Noelle appreciated him trying to make light
of the situation to try to protect their secret.

“I think he knows exactly what he’s sayin’,”
Larry said firmly.

“I do. I want to marry her and the best part
is she loves me, too. It wasn’t easy, Larry. She wouldn’t admit how
she felt for a long time, but she loves me too. Thank you for
having such a wonderful daughter.”

Noelle was ready to kill him! She was not
prepared for this. That knot in her stomach came back. She looked
at her Pop for some sort of reaction. He just gave Jackson a stare
down. Not good. Jackson leaned his head back on the pillow and
closed his eyes. “Oh,” he said opening them one more time, “I
promise you we are going to give you a ton of grandkids.”

Noelle bolted out of the room. She had no
idea how Pop was going to react and didn’t want to stay to see it.
She couldn’t deal with any of it right now.

Jackson woke up not remembering where he was.
The room was dim but he remembered pretty quickly that he was in a
hospital room. Then he remembered Noelle being there with him. He
looked around for her, “Noelle?” Where was she? He noticed Larry
getting up from a chair that he was sitting in on the other side of
the room. He slowly walked over to the chair closest to his bed and
sat down.

“How you feeling, son?”

“Better,” Jackson said sitting up some. He
just called out for Noelle and there was her father. His appendix
wasn’t the worst pain he would go through, because Larry was about
to hurt every other part of him in a minute.

“Glad to hear it. You had all of us worried.
Your dad, your mom…my daughter.”

Jackson didn’t say anything for a bit. He
could pretend like he didn’t know what Larry was talking about, but
he knew that would be an insult to the man. He figured now was the
best time to come clean. He had to tell Larry the truth about his
love for Noelle. Jackson opened his mouth to speak but Larry
started first.

“Jennifer’s announcement that she is going to
be a mother made me realize she is going to be fine. Almost like my
job as a parent is complete with her. Now I get to be a
grandfather. Paul is perfect for her and she is going to be a great
mother. I am at peace knowing that Jennifer is not going to be
alone and has a family of her own. Noelle has me worried. She is
stubborn but has the biggest heart of anyone I ever knew. She needs
to be able to have what her sister has. She works too much and
never makes time for herself.”

Jackson’s heart stopped. He knew that there
was never a more perfect time to confess. “You don’t need to worry
about Noelle, sir. You don’t need to worry about her, because I
love her.”

“You do?”

“I’m ashamed though, because even though we
are adults, we didn’t tell you about it first. I have a lot of
respect for you, Larry and when I realized that your daughter is
the one for me I should have told you first. I want your blessing
to marry your daughter. I am so sorry we didn’t tell you about us
at the start but she was scared because of your rule. She didn’t
want to hurt you or my career.” Jackson braced himself waiting for
the worst.

“I’ve always known that you’ve loved my
daughter. At first I would see how the two of you would look at
each other and I didn’t like it at first, but the more I thought of
the two of you together, the more I liked it. I’ve known you since
you were a scrawny kid. Your dad is like a brother to me. The more
I saw you together, the more I liked the idea. I just thought that
the two of you didn’t figure it out yet. When Noelle came into the
room earlier and she saw me here, I saw it all over her face. I
don’t want my girls to be involved with a wrestler, and I still
don’t. Jackson, you are different. You aren’t going to use her
because of me. You and she were meant to be together from the
beginning. No matter what you became, in my heart, I believe you
and her would be together.”

Never has he felt so much relief. “Ah, Larry,
you don’t know how happy that makes me. Where is she?”

“Not so fast. She is going to be mad at
you.”

“I know for working sick.”

Larry laughed at that. “You were really out
of it.”

“Out of what?”

“You blabbed the whole story in front of
everyone. You told me how you were going to give me grandbabies and
she bolted from the room. Honestly, I wish you wouldn’t have said
that part, but she ran out and haven’t seen her since.”

“I really did that?”

“You did.” The men turned towards the door
where the voice was coming from.

Noelle walked into Jackson’s hospital room
and was only able to hear Larry tell Jackson how he exposed their
secret relationship. Poor Jackson was so out of it that he didn’t
remember any of it. She wished she was that lucky.

The men were still looking at her as she
slowly walked into the room. She couldn’t tell anything from their
expressions. Finally, Noelle found her voice, “Pop, it’s not
Jackson’s fault.”